This is Halloween: Haunted Ginger Bread Houses!

It's October ya'll! Holy cow, this year has gone by fast. I feel like we just barely finished last year's Holiday season! And yet, here we go again.

 But you know what? I'm totally okay with that. ;] I kind of love the Holidays. Especially fall!

So, in spirit of the upcoming busy-holiday-happiness, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite Halloween traditions:

Haunted Ginger Bread Houses!

Or in this case, graham cracker houses ;] (we like to cut corners 'round hur).

They are super easy to make, especially if you've ever done the more traditional Christmas Gingerbread Houses.  Really, all you need is some frosting, some graham crackers (or gingerbread. You dern over achievers you!), and some candy of your choice.

My family has been creating these haunted counterparts, well...  well since before I was born! 

Growing up, we used to have these huge magnetic photo albums.  As a little girl I used to spend hours pouring over them page by page ( I was really just searching for pictures of myself. Narcissistic little child.).  Some of my favorite photos in there were of my family, back in the early 70's, decorating haunted houses. 

Well, those... and also the photos of my dad and brothers wearing matching daisy-dukes at Disneyland. 

Horrifying. But I digress. ;]

The point is, this tradition ( the haunted houses... not the daisy-dukes) has followed me from childhood to motherhood, and I am so glad it has! It has been so fun sharing this tradition with my husband and, more recently, our children! 

 (I think he's a fan, don't you? Maybe it's all the frosting...;])

Our haunted houses seem to get more and more elaborate each year. Normally, we pop in a movie and help our kids make & eat their haunted homes first. After the kids are in bed, my husband and I work together making our own monster-huge haunted house. It gets pretty serious. It may or may not take us all night to finish. Typically. 

I plead the fifth!

We like to use the following for decorating, but you can really choose whatever you like best! 

Black Licorice: Makes great "trees", shingles for the roof, doorways, lined walkways...

Candy Corn: Good for porch railings, chimneys, shingles for roof...

Reese's Pieces: Can use for windows, fancy trim, a tasty snack...

Candy Pumpkins: Good for a jack-o-lantern in the spooky yard.

Marshmallows: You can buy pens for cake decorating that have edible ink, use those to make ghost faces on your mini or large marshmallows and stick them randomly around your haunted home.

Frosting: As many as or a few colors as you would wish. We usually use frosting not just to stick the graham crackers together, but also to give our homes a nice coat of fresh "paint."

The options are really limitless. These are just a few ideas!  My best advice would be to have fun with it. Make it as elaborate or as simple as you'd like. And buy some extra candy for munching on! And maybe an extra movie or two for watching, just in case you get extra ambitious! ;]

I can't wait to turn on The Nightmare Before Christmas, pull out my cake decorating set,  and sit down with my family this year to make some perfectly scary little mansions for our neighborhood ghouls! What are your favorite Halloween traditions? Movies? My favorite movie as a little girl was Earnest Scared Stupid. I haven't seen it in years! Maybe it deserves a revisit. We'll see!